WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a Texas teenager who got in trouble for downloading music without paying.
Whitney Harper acknowledged she used file-sharing networks to download and share three dozen songs.
But she said the money she owes music companies should be reduced because as a 16-year-old she didn’t know that what she did amounted to copyright infringement.
The justices rejected Harper’s appeal Monday over a dissent from Justice Samuel Alito. The issue in the case is whether people who illegally swap music online can try to show that they did so innocently. Harper wanted the money owed for each song cut to $200 from $750.
“Ignorance is no excuse and it is a strict liability situation so that’s not a viable defense,” said Raymond Schiflett, Director of Legal Services at UT Austin.
Schiflett said the Recording Industry Association of America began targeting college and university campuses back in 2008 to try to stop the spread of illegally downloaded and shared music. Hundreds of University of Texas students were sued.
“If their piracy software was finding out who you were- then you were at risk,” said Schiflett. “The students were almost uniformly horrified. Many of them didn’t expect to be challenged like that- a lot of them didn’t know it was illegal.”
That defense was shot down by a Texas Appeals court in the Harper case and the Supreme Court refused to overturn it. The lawsuits at UT continue today although they have slowed to about one a month, said Schiflett.
Most of the University of Texas cases have been settled between $3- 4,000. Some cases were also dismissed.
The case is Harper v. Maverick Recording Co ., 10-94.
Originally reported by WISH-TV News. Read the original article here.